Laser Cut Stop Motion Animations | Bringing New Worlds to Life

Recently, a new laser cut stop motion animation video popped up in my feed on social media and after watching it a half dozen times and drooling on myself thinking of all of the cool things I could make with my new FLUX laser cutter…I got lost in the rabbit hole of Youtube.

I had no idea how many incredible artists there are out there using laser cut paper, wood, and various other materials to create stop motion animations! Some are relying solely on their laser cutters to produce hundreds of parts for their short films and some are using a mix of traditional hand-cut pieces along with laser cutters to make their creations come to life.

I found quite a few artists that are working with their laser cutters to make their stop motion animations and am leaving a few of them here for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!

Laser Cut Wood Stop Motion Animations

“Lost in Motions” | Black Sheep Films

Argentinan filmmaker Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films has created “Lost In Motions”, a gorgeous stop motion animated short film that features 800 individual laser cut figures that dance down a lighted catwalk.

This animation was created as part of the “Aritsts Locked Down” project which is a collaboration of artists from all over the globe who are sharing what they have been inspired to create during lockdown through this global COVID 19 pandemic.

“Plywood Fox” | Sarah Capon and Benjamin Donnelly

“Plywood Fox” consists of 22 frames of hand-drawn animation, laser cut onto plywood in an animation experiment by Sarah Capon and Benjamin Donnelly.

The frames were hand-drawn by Sarah and Benjamin was in charge of making the models. The very short animation video is set to “Clear Waters” by Kevin MacLeod.

“Anew” | Ivan Owen

“Anew” is a story of change. A stop motion animation made entirely with laser-cut wooden characters against a light box.

Ivan shares, “This piece was inspired by the works of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, and those who have followed in her footsteps.”

“Willow” | Cayla G.

“Willow” Is a short stop-motion cutout animation by student artist Cayla G for an animation class using laser cut bass wood, canvas, fabric, paper, cardboard, and wire.

“The New America” | Nando Costa

Created by designer Nando Costa – The New American is a beautiful motion graphics animation that was laser cut into a series of 800 individual maple blocks. This project took nearly two years.

Nando shares, “The abstract storyline showcased in this piece is a concoction of a variety of ideas and can perhaps be described as a union between concepts and experiments born during the Situationist movement and real-life events experienced during the last few years in American society. Particularly the duality between the economic downturn and the shift in values and beliefs of many citizens.”

Laser Cut Paper Stop Motion Animations

“Little Red Riding Hood” | Hazel O'Brien

This animation from Hazel O'Brien is a gorgeous rendition of the Brothers Grimm story ‘Little Red Riding Hood.” The set and props are either hand made or laser cut from white cardstock and set to “Seaglopur”, music by Sigur Ros.

Hazel shares, “Each cut out has a sewing pin attached to it and the pieces are pinned into foam which is underneath the white card. Very handy when matching up cut outs as you just use the same pin hole every time!”

“Dark Island Dance” | Hazel O'Brien

This laser cut stop motion animation from Hazel O'Brien is an intro piece for London based dance group Dark Island Dance. This piece was laser cut from paper and the set was created from lightbox prints and handcrafted polystyrene.

Dancer: Grace Clayton
Music Svetlana Industries svetlanaindustries.com

“Student Work” | Jasmine Uy

Arts and Entertainment Technologies student Jasmine Uy, at UT Austin created this abstract stop motion video using pieces fabricated on a laser cutter for an assignment in a 2D Production Art class.

“My Love” | Hazel O'Brien

Paper stop motion music video made for ‘Troumaca' of Brownswood recordings, for their song ‘My Love', created by Hazel O'Brien.

Laser Cut 2D and 3D Stop Motion Animations

The Bear & The Hare

While this animation may look like a traditionally created digital animation, it is in fact comprised of over 4000 laser cut 2D frames printed out and then stop motion animated over 6 weeks through the handmade, scaled-down world of these wooden creatures! (See the “Behind the Scenes” video below!)

Blink and Hornet brought directors Elliot Dear & Yves Geleyn together to create this gorgeous project “The Bear & The Hare.”

From the Vimeo description:

Elliot and Yves took the two most traditional and time-honored animation processes – stop-motion and traditional hand-drawn 2D animation – and combined them to create something innovative and unique. Their aim was to do almost everything in-camera, using real lighting, lens, and film craft to build a world where the audience can see and feel the painstaking work behind it. The 2D animation's physical interaction with the set and the human imperfections inherent in the process create a hand-crafted piece full of heart and integrity.

The animation process involved constant shifts between 2D and 3D worlds. In order to achieve this complicated combination, the whole film was first created in Blinkink Studios as a 3D pre-visualisation animatic with all the sets and characters built to scale. This allowed everything to be developed and planned alongside the modelmakers and animators, thus integrating the different disciplines and processes before the set was built or the characters were printed.

The Making of The Bear & The Hare | Behind the Scenes

This is a quick look at some of the behind the scenes of the 2D traditional animation team that were involved in the making of the John Lewis Christmas advert – “The Bear and The Hare”.

The amount of work that went into this animation is absolutely breathtaking. What an amazing project!

Have You Made a Laser Cut Stop Motion Animation?

We are currently searching for interesting and inspiring customer projects!

If you have created your own stop motion animation using your laser cutter or the kids have been keeping busy making short films with your FLUX or Dremel laser cutters this summer – please send us an email to info@3duniverse.org with a link to your video and to share your story with us!

We would love to feature you on our blog!

If you are interested in learning more about laser cutters and how they might help you with your art, educational or business projects, please contact us at info@3Duniverse.org!